1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to display apparatus and systems for supporting, displaying and dispensing goods, and more particularly to a display system for removably supporting a plurality of individual product-containing containers for display and sale of the products contained therein.
2. Background Art
Display structures, racks and cartons formed from corrugated board, sometimes referred to as “point of purchase” (POP) displays are widely used in retail establishments for displaying merchandise. The corrugated boards used to form the POP display structures, racks, and cartons are typically die cut from corrugated board and are foldable from an initially flat state to an assembled state for use. Conventional freestanding floor-supported POP display racks are typically constructed to form several tiers of shelves when assembled for holding various merchandise or goods, such as packaged snacks, CD's, books and the like.
Conventional POP display cartons are adapted to contain a plurality of “impulse” type items such as bottles of aspirin, candy, gum or the like and a generally placed in a countertop or rack adjacent to the cash register. The display cartons generally comprise, in their assembled state, a bottom wall, a pair of opposed side walls, a front wall and a rear wall. The top of the display carton is open and the front wall of the display carton is normally of a height that is considerably less than a height of the rear wall of the carton. In this manner, a customer can view the products contained within the display carton and access the products from the front of the display carton to thereby remove one of the plurality of products for purchase. Often, the wholesaler or manufacturer will ship the display carton to a retailer in its assembled state with the products preloaded in the carton. When the display carton is shipped in this manner a shrink fit piece of cellophane or the like is wrapped around the display carton to maintain the products securely in the carton during shipping. Once the display carton and products arrive at the retail establishment, the retailer can simply remove the cellophane and place the display cartons on a shelf or on a specifically designed rack for holding a plurality of cartons for sale of the products.
Typically, various packaged goods and products, e.g., snack food products such as potato chips, cookies and the like, are aligned on for display on fixed showcase shelves or freestanding racks in stores. However, the individually packaged goods need to be manually placed on the showcase shelves or racks bag by bag, which consumes considerable time and expense. Another disadvantage is that the packaged goods are only displayed on predetermined showcase shelves with similar goods, and consequently the variety of types of products or goods that can be displayed in close proximity is limited.
It is also common in the art to affix the packages of these types of goods and products to a carrier strip or display card that may be displayed in the store, whereby the customer can manually remove a package from the carrier strip or card. One of the primary attributes of such display strip and card systems is their suitability for use in a retail establishment with limited space because they are considerably smaller than conventional product display racks. Such carrier strips and card displays may be positioned adjacent to a counter or on a counter or suspended from a shelf other suitable support. However, because they are considerably smaller than conventional product display racks, only a limited number of packaged goods can be accommodated.
Another conventional method for attaching packaged goods to a carrier strip or display card is by attaching the end seal or flange of a package or bag utilizing fasteners or adhesive. However, this method is also time consuming and expensive, and there is always a possibility that the seal, the package, or the packaged goods, may be damaged when the customer attempts to manually remove the package from the carrier strip or card. Another disadvantage is that the entire display may be pulled down or fall over when the customer attempts to manually remove the package from the carrier strip or card.